REQUIRED
-Enter every phase portal
-Fight every monster you see, including bosses: if you see it, either it dies or you do
-Hit every plunger, check every chest, etc. (excluding TNT barrels)
-When you first start in town, you have 100g, which you should use to buy 3x Health Potion

ALLOWED
-Clearing levels before proceeding (this was added to address two problems: (1) excessive reliance on luck, and (2) over time, a decreasing gap between player and monster level)

If anyone has additional suggestions, please post, and I'll edit the original posting. Please post screenshots of your attempts! Good luck, and have fun!

P.S. Screenshot instructions: shift-F9 takes an image, then you can go to C:\Documents and Settings\Chris\Application Data\runic games\torchlight\screenshots to find the files. Just paste that into Start -> Run. ImageShack has an "Uploader" program that makes it easy to upload and link multiple images simultaneously.

Comments

I came to Torchlight in search of battle and wealth, but quietly, I also hoped that defending this small border town would bring me a lasting sense of peace. I've always traveled, but Torchlight is somewhere I could put down roots, set up a small farm, and live out my days in solitude.

When I first entered the corrupted mines, I was immediately set upon by rodent-like men and huge arachnids. Strangely, one of the rat-men had a scroll of town portal, but perhaps was too dense to make use of it himself. Regardless, I knew I wouldn't be needing it...

I've arrived at the second level of the mine, and as I'm beset upon by these twisted visions of Ember, I can feel the power of my ancestors rising up to protect me. This force is so vindictive that, on occasion, I have seen it reach out from the nether-realms to strike at my foes in the living world.

I had just finished a battle against more rat-men when I felt a shower of dust fall from above. Looking up, I saw a pack of purple, bat-like creatures crawling along the ledge. Before I could raise my blades in defense, they set upon me, leaping down from the ledge and making hideous, inhuman noises, as if calling each other to the feast. Although I was again victorious, I was weakened, and my supplies were spent. It was then that a giant rat-man, perhaps one of their warlords, rushed to meet me...

Perhaps now I will protect you, my ancestor, as you delve into the darkness under Torchlight...

Like my ancestor before me, I ventured underneath Torchlight in search of what I did not have...

Before long, I came to a large, cavernous room, covered in the goo of what must have been several hundred rotted creatures. At the center of the room reclined a massive arachnid, pregnant with the blood of her victims, larger even than those in legends.

In fact, it's pointless. Even with good drops, it's an endless kite-athon of epic proportions which ends when you run out of potions. Or patience.
Still, I made it to clvl 5, and even managed to save up a lot of potions for Brink (though that exploit is tempting me, tbh - but then, this is an exercise in futility, so success is not an option...)

Kiting mobs with shadow armour (start running after it starts swinging) and hit-and-run with slash is not fun, even when a few strategically placed health/mana shrines, and some less-than-abysmal drops help you out. Probably should've opted for something other than the imaginary pet, too.

Going to bed now, not sure when I'll start the Brink fight...

One rule question btw: Does "every barrel" include TNT barrels? I hope not, so far, I've avoided playing suicide terrorist and blowing myself up xD

no truth - no justice
all false belief
blinded by morality
there shall be... no peace
no peace!

In fact, it's pointless. Even with good drops, it's an endless kite-athon of epic proportions which ends when you run out of potions. Or patience.
Still, I made it to clvl 5, and even managed to save up a lot of potions for Brink (though that exploit is tempting me, tbh - but then, this is an exercise in futility, so success is not an option...)

Kiting mobs with shadow armour (start running after it starts swinging) and hit-and-run with slash is not fun, even when a few strategically placed health/mana shrines, and some less-than-abysmal drops help you out. Probably should've opted for something other than the imaginary pet, too.

Going to bed now, not sure when I'll start the Brink fight...

One rule question btw: Does "every barrel" include TNT barrels? I hope not, so far, I've avoided playing suicide terrorist and blowing myself up xD

I edited the original post regarding TNT barrels (not required; this is hard enough). I also posted that you should use your original 100g to buy 3x Health Potions, which should help alleviate some of the kitefest early on.

Ok. I did buy in town (and even sold my two TP for that purpose), initial purchases were always a part of Diablo Ironman (though that was co-op, so you'd stock up on resurrect scroll), so I thought that was ok..

Now, on to Brink...

no truth - no justice
all false belief
blinded by morality
there shall be... no peace
no peace!

I`ll most likely pick this up when I get a new PC (and can finally play the game flawlessly) in a week or two.
Should be refreshing after D2 (that I`m currently bored of...probably not for long though), probably even harder than some of the untwinked, HC, single-pass tourneys over at forums.diii.net

I`ll most likely pick this up when I get a new PC (and can finally play the game flawlessly) in a week or two.
Should be refreshing after D2 (that I`m currently bored of...probably not for long though), probably even harder than some of the untwinked, HC, single-pass tourneys over at forums.diii.net

*thumbup* to author and good luck to those that keep going

Got to 7, nice gear, plenty of potions stocked up... then insta-gibbed in a phase portal by archers. Was doing so nicely... oh, well.

What were your stats and skill distribution?
I`ve found the game to be pretty easy if I add (almost) all stats do defense and upgrade only Shadow Armor early on up to lvl 5 (the damage it deals helps a ton). But I haven`t gone much further on VHHC - the giant 5th level lags like **** on my ancient PC.

Although I guess that a phase portal so early (and not only) is a real killer no matter what skills/stats you have :?

The first attempt to kill Brink ended in death by windows update, so I started over...

Progressing nicely, though I wouldn't mind more health potion drops...

Made it to clvl 5, still clearing dlvl 3... probably made a mistake by skipping on Stampede, though, if I don't find better weapons, I'll be barely able to scratch Brink with my current gear...

Edit: going 2:3 str:def for attributes, as I'm playing DW(slash) hit-and-run. Must be using different shadow armour than everyone else, though, the few % block chance don't make much of a difference, and it mostly deals glancing blows or single-digit damage...

no truth - no justice
all false belief
blinded by morality
there shall be... no peace
no peace!

What were your stats and skill distribution?
I`ve found the game to be pretty easy if I add (almost) all stats do defense and upgrade only Shadow Armor early on up to lvl 5 (the damage it deals helps a ton). But I haven`t gone much further on VHHC - the giant 5th level lags like **** on my ancient PC.

Although I guess that a phase portal so early (and not only) is a real killer no matter what skills/stats you have :?

I went about 2 Strength : 3 Defense, but when I needed to do so for major upgrades, I dropped a couple in Dexterity. Here's how I placed my points at each level:

If not for that phase portal, I would have been in very good shape. I had about 5 of each potion, and I was killing things without much hassle. Brink was really hard, though -- I probably used about 8 healing and 5 mana potions. Starting to think the poster above me might have the right idea about Shadow Armor -- once in a while it lands a big crit, but for the most part, the damage **** and the block is too low to make a significant difference.

Killed Brink, took a while... now clvl 6 and dlvl 5, found some really nice stuff, and, most importantly, found Heal Self 1. Major boost right there.

As far as skills go, Entropic Aura is great, as slower enemies = easier hit and run.
I've also dumped some point into armor expertise... not sure if I'll live long for that to pay dividends, arguably boosting dmg output further and relying on my dodging skills could've been better...

Shadow armour is odd, it seems to scale with clvl in addition to slvl - it's now doing 20-30 dmg fairly regularly, despite still being on slvl 1

no truth - no justice
all false belief
blinded by morality
there shall be... no peace
no peace!

I tried this, got swarmed by mobs in the begining of the second level, I used up all but one of my potions just to survive. Had an unique pistol drop from a boss, which I obviously didn't use. Tried to save my last healing potion for the last second, but I screwed it up and died. I think the best case scenario would be me killed by Brink.
I didn't get very far, but I think that Shadow Armor is the way to go. Extra points spent on Slash seems a bit of a waste for me. On the other hand Shadow armor's extra block will be useful in a long run. If I ever get to lvl5 I will be improving Titan Stomp for a while. Actually I was wondering about Shadow Bowman at lvl10 (lol). I don't have any experience about the damage of this skill, but the fact that its ranged looks promising.

The best thing about this contest is that I won't need to spend points on barter

Edit:
Oh, and I got a question: So far I thought that the game saves when I go to town. How does saving works exactly? Or part of the contest is to do the whole game at once?

I don't see the appeal of block early on, not only is the % chance fairly low, but you're also unlikely to get hit in the first place.

Smooth sailing for my guy now, more so due to the 2 decent weapons than due to healing, which'll probably come into its own in a couple of lvls when I can no longer reliably kill stuff without taking damage.

Clvl 7 and heading down to dlvl 6 now...

no truth - no justice
all false belief
blinded by morality
there shall be... no peace
no peace!

I reached him on my second try, but the only way I found to damage him without constantly using health pots is to circle around that obstacle part of the map, changing directions and waiting for my pet to hit him once or twice before he starts to focus on him and sends him to flee again. Killing him like that takes a LOT of time... Actually I died again because of the exploding crystals, but those can be avoided or destoryed.

If I were to fight face to face with him I'd have needed about 15-20 potions (I tried this for a while, but gave up after about 3 pots, coz I didn't believe my 13 will last). Maybe I didn't find weapons good enough. Both of them were 60-70 DPS if I remember correctly. Still, I believe that the Shadow armor's damage is greater then the extra damage for lvl4 slash instead of lvl1. Glancing blows to normal monsters are very rare, and often my armor hits more than I do. However its value against Brink is questionable.

Also I was wondering... Two of the three (i think) bosses I met before Brink were those big rats with hammers. I can't hit them without getting hit, so I had to waste about 2 potions for each of them. Actually I can't even kill the normal version of those without getting hit once or twice, I'm lucky that they are kind of rare. Is there a trick I don't know about?

Good picture of a bad day, thought you guys might get a kick out of this:

As for Brink, I just used Slash Attack and Titan Stomp, and tried to stay out of his way as much as possible. Basically I ended up just going head-to-head, though, and sucking down my store of around 8-10 potions. Same idea with rat bosses -- they're going to hit you either way, so the best you can do is kill them ASAP.

Some other useful things I've come across:

-Don't forget to buy the 3 healing potions with your 100g in the beginning
-Use a 'shepherd' approach to round up small monsters, then use Slash Attack to wipe them all out at once
-Kite larger groups to a TNT barrel before using Slash Attack, as the damage you take from the barrel is sometimes less than you would take without it (since it kills things so fast)
-Trolls can be killed without taking any damage if you use good timing -- run up, wait until they begin to attack, run back, and then run forward and hit them as soon as their attack completes, then repeat

Can I ask how you killed Brink?
[...]
Also I was wondering... Two of the three (i think) bosses I met before Brink were those big rats with hammers. I can't hit them without getting hit, so I had to waste about 2 potions for each of them. Actually I can't even kill the normal version of those without getting hit once or twice, I'm lucky that they are kind of rare. Is there a trick I don't know about?

Hit-and-run is the way to go.
Basically, you wait for the enemy to come to you, you start swinging (shift-click) so that they're hit by the last bit of the attack animation, then immediately start running away again. Entropic aura helps with this, so does slash, (which seems to give a bit more reach and requires less precise timing, and of course + interrupt helps with the return blows, too)...

Brink is easily (read: takes forever and a day, but is fairly safe) killed with TS spam, as that hits through most obstacles and allows you to stay out of harms way. Going up close in Ironman would depend on the weapons you have - witht he weapons I found shortly after brink, I probably could've trashed him in a 2-3 pots (I actually found the shiv in one of the chests in the arena, but couldn't have used it at clvl 5 anyways), with what I had (2x 60 pds), even a full slash critical didn't yield enough of a damage increase over the ts spam (30-40 vs 80-ish) to justify the extra risk.
Just be patient - you'll see a playtime increase of 35 minutes in my journal from lvl 5 shortly (well maybe 5 minutes) before Brink to lvl 6 clearing the 2nd room of dlvl 5...
It takes a lot of clicking, as you'll be on the move almost constantly, but it keeps you from getting hit about 90% of the time.

Still, I believe that the Shadow armor's damage is greater then the extra damage for lvl4 slash instead of lvl1.

Arguably yes, but why would you put more than 1 point into Slash? You have DW mastery available from lvl 1 if you want a dmg increase, and several good lvl 5 skills later on...

-Use a 'shepherd' approach to round up small monsters, then use Slash Attack to wipe them all out at once

If you're impatient and want to get yourself killed perhaps. Nothing wrong with killing them one at a time with even less risk if you can do so...
The only time I prefer a bold approach is with spawnpoints (shafts, slides, grates etc...) where I try to get in front of it and slash-spam it so all the mobs die as soon as they come out...

What you should do though is letting enemies who spawn other enemies (the diggers in the catacombs) spawn their entire contingent, you'll get xp for each of the skeletons they spawn...

Edit: Here's a pic to illustrate how to best take advantage of TS and obstacles.

no truth - no justice
all false belief
blinded by morality
there shall be... no peace
no peace!

I keep finding that same staff on every single one of my vhhc vanqs. >.>
I'm going to give this ironman challenge a shot. I think I'll start with a Destroyer.

As for Brink, I'll probably end up exploiting the stairs for him... He's not all that difficult to beat without abusing that little trick, but I expect that I'll just be sick of kiting enemies around and around by that point. I have no expectation that this character will get to Ordrak O.o

I've had some bad luck to start >.>
I didn't find a single usable magic item, health potion, ranged weapon, better melee weapon on the first 1 and a half floors. Thanks to the efforts of two varkolin mages and a pile of those spiders I'm down to a tiny fraction of health and no potions already. Since I have no ranged weapons to kite with, this journey is looking fairly doomed.

I've had some bad luck to start >.>
I didn't find a single usable magic item, health potion, ranged weapon, better melee weapon on the first 1 and a half floors. Thanks to the efforts of two varkolin mages and a pile of those spiders I'm down to a tiny fraction of health and no potions already. Since I have no ranged weapons to kite with, this journey is looking fairly doomed.

Check the original post -- no ranged weapons or summons; melee builds only

An update on my own progress... got to 7 again, hit yet another phase portal, and it took me to a lava place where I fought a troll juggernaut (yes, at level 7). Then I went into a room filled with goblin stabbers and mages:

And was promptly cornered and burnt, sliced, etc. to pieces, despite spamming Titan Stomp and both potions.

Check the original post -- no ranged weapons or summons; melee builds only

Actually I had just spotted that when I went to check if I could o fishing or not. Well, since I still haven't found a ranged weapon I suppose it's not loss anyways. Tough luck on your latest toon, Phase portals are always brutal >>

****, that's rough, man! 108 and +25 knockback at level 4... that would be so brutal... practically a free ride to 10+.

Yup, sadly I didn't end up getting a single decent weapon for my destroyer. Vodka II died just now, after I killed Brink I went down the stairs and was immidiately raped by a champion spectre and a dozen skeletons... I'll give it another go shortly.

****, that's rough, man! 108 and +25 knockback at level 4... that would be so brutal... practically a free ride to 10+.

Yup, sadly I didn't end up getting a single decent weapon for my destroyer. Vodka II died just now, after I killed Brink I went down the stairs and was immidiately raped by a champion spectre and a dozen skeletons... I'll give it another go shortly.

btw, are dungeon merchants allowed?

****, that ****... I'm about to try another, too. Good luck!

No go on the dungeon merchants -- total self-sufficiency or bust! (If dungeon merchants were allowed, people could stockpile potions from a single merchant, and it would kill the challenge.)